One lawyer in civil practice has come out of the woodwork to say he’ll run for a Superior Court seat next year.

After reading my Friday column about the race, I got an e-mail from Kenneth “K.C.” Jones stating his intent to file for one of at least three open seats. He has 20 years of experience as a civil litigator, most recently as a partner in the Santa Ana-based firm Hollins Schechter. He is now joining the Superior Court as a research lawyer, working on civil and criminal cases for judges. He did not say which of the three seats he intends to run for.

“I note that several prosecutors from the D.A.’s Office are planning on running, and it seems that they feel that they can ‘divvy-up’ the open seats. My colleagues from the civil bar and I appreciate a law-and-order judge, but we have also expressed frustration when litigating complex insurance, intellectual property, real estate and business cases before former prosecutors.”

Jones is the only civil lawyer whose name I’ve heard as a candidate. Somebody in the trial lawyers’ association sent an e-mail to the group querying whether anyone was interested, but board member Casey Johnson says he’s heard of no takers.

Jones’ reference to divvying up the open seats comes from a statement by Deputy D.A. Mike Flory to me about how he and two other prosecutors agreed as to which of the three retiring judges’ seats each would run for. The two other prosecutors involved, Pete Pierce and Nick Thompson, each told me that wasn’t quitehow it went down, although they did say they had all checked with each other beforehand. The other prosecutor running is Jonathan Fish. The filing deadline for the June primary is in February.

Orange City Councilman Denis Bilodeau‘s criminal charge for alleged campaign sign-stealing was quietly dropped on Nov. 16, per the agreement reached months ago. This episode was not the D.A. Office’s finest hour, placing too much faith, apparently, in the “investigation” by operatives of Bilodeau’s political rival, Carol Rudat.

If there’s one good thing that comes out of it in the global sense, it is this: Along with Scott Baugh, there is now a second Republican political figure in this law-and-order county who knows what it is like to be the victim of overly aggressive prosecutors. And if there’s one good piece of irony in this, it is that on the day the charges were dropped, Bilodeau’s regular attorney, Jennifer Keller, couldn’t be in court. Subbing for her was K-Rack: defense attorney Kay Rackauckas.

At the same Steve Baric fundraiser where I got the lowdown on the judicial races last week, I ran into Tom Fuentes. He informed me that his is officially on UCLA’s liver-transplant waiting list.

Bummed that UCI’s baseball coach Dave Serrano left, the ‘Eater Nation that had been euphoric during the summer was slipping into lethargy this fall, resembling not so much a nation but a blighted municipality in search of a redevelopment director.

Enter Kendall Holiday, younger sister of Taylor Holiday, the first baseman with the hair. She has come out with a “memory book” on the season titled, “The Road to Omaha: The Journey is the Reward.” She started the project over the summer, when she was at home from Texas Christian University. She completed it just after the announcement about Serrano signing with Cal State Fullerton. The coffee-table-sized book contains 50 pages of photos and newspaper clippings of the Cinderella season.

“After the news of Serrano leaving, it seemed as if the power of the snout began to decline and feelings of anger and hurt began to rise,” she says. But when the book came out, the team and parents seemed to rally emotionally. Anyone interested in a copy can contact her at k.holiday@tcu.edu.

Meanwhile, Taylor is back in Irvine for the winter after finishing his first pro season hitting .290 and playing outfield for the Yankees’ Class A team on Staten Island. The Anteaters’ home opener is Feb. 27 against USC.

I’m now taking nominations for my yearly updates to the Frank-o-pedia, the online guide to everything I consider important in O.C. Wait, you say, don’t you know what you consider important? Apparently not, according to several people who have weaseled their way onto it over the years. Anyway, feel free to nominate anyone or anything – just be accurate. Or funny. Whichever.

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